Chapter 49
CHAPTER 49
Sophie was already in the kitchen, cooking, when Beau came down.
‘Morning, darling,’ she said, giving him a warm kiss. ‘Did you sleep well?’
‘Blissfully, thank you,’ he said, although he’d hardly closed his eyes. He and Tamar had stayed awake all night, talking. He’d come very close to telling her everything about his father, but had held back in case it tainted the beauty of finally being with her.
Talking, holding each other, kissing and sharing secrets was all they’d done. Well, some quite seriously heavy petting, but not the full Happy Meal. Beau wanted to wait a bit longer. To relish the anticipation, to let his feelings for this amazing woman continue to grow, before they moved things on to the next stage. And possibly not with his mother in the same building.
The weirdest thing about it was that it hadn’t felt weird. He really didn’t know himself anymore, but he liked this new person.
‘How about you, dearest Ma?’ he said, snapping his attention back. ‘Did you sleep the sleep of the just Mumsk?’
‘Absolutely,’ she said, not looking up from the mushrooms she was slicing. ‘Any sign of life from the girls? I’d like to know how Niamh is this morning.’
‘Er, I think I heard something stirring up there. Shall I go and see?’ He was happy to do that, because he thought if he didn’t see Tamar’s face again in the next couple of seconds, he might drop down dead.
He bounded up to the top floor two at a time, feeling as though he had springs in his knees. The only thing worrying him was telling his mother about him and Tamar. Would she be furious? He’d made a promise. Was keeping it for four months long enough? He hoped so.
He tapped on Tamar’s bedroom door then put his head round it. She was kneeling by the bed, giving Niamh a glass of water. When she turned and smiled at him, his heart did such a flip he thought he might fall over.
‘How are you, Niamh?’ he asked.
‘Not too bad,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry, Beau, I was really crass with you last night.’
‘It’s fine,’ he said, coming over to sit on the end of the bed and tickling her toes through the duvet. ‘But are you alright?’
‘I am now. I’m not even that hung over. I only had about three glasses of wine – but I’m taking these new anxiety pills and I didn’t know you aren’t supposed to drink alcohol with them.’
‘It didn’t seem like you, but that explains everything.’
‘Was I really awful?’
‘No!’ said Beau and Tamar at the same time. Yes, but we’ll never tell you .
As he smiled at Niamh, he noticed she wasn’t wearing his ring anymore. Trying to be discreet, he looked round the room and spotted it lying on the floor by the bed.
‘Mum’s making breakfast,’ he said, getting to his feet and, in one deft move, kicking the ring out of sight. ‘There’s the full greasy if you want that, or clean and healthy if that floats your thing. I know what I’m having and it won’t be pretty. Everyone from last night is coming.’
Niamh looked horrified. ‘They must all hate me.’
‘Not at all,’ said Tamar firmly. ‘Everyone was just really concerned. They’ll be glad to see you looking...’
‘Normal?’ said Niamh. She got out of bed, stark naked, and put the pink dress back on. ‘That’s never going to happen,’ she said, sticking her tongue out at them and disappearing from the room.
Beau immediately took Tamar in his arms and nuzzled into her neck. ‘Hello, beautiful,’ he said.
She put her hands on his cheeks. ‘Hello, handsome.’
‘I’m so happy. I’ll try not to be too embarrassing, at least until I’ve confessed to my mother, but I’m so happy I’ve finally told you how I feel.’
‘Right back at you, sunshine.’
Sophie thought she was getting through the breakfast quite well. There was only one near slip, when everyone was sitting at the dining table and Charlie followed her into the kitchen under the pretence of getting more toast and started nibbling her ear, not realising that Tamar was behind the fridge door until she shut it and looked straight at them. But he moved away quickly enough, heading back out to the table, so Sophie thought she probably hadn’t noticed.
Tamar also went back to the dining room and for a moment Sophie just stood by the stove allowing herself to relish the novelty of being happy and remembering how it had felt waking up that morning in Charlie’s arms in the bedroom at Agata’s house.
‘How old am I?’ Charlie had said.
‘About twenty-three, I think,’ she’d replied.
‘Oh, good. In that case, we can carry on where we left off.’
And they’d made love again, then lay back, holding hands and smiling at each other.
She’d stroked his cheek. He’d pretended to bite her fingers and she’d giggled like a teenage girl. Was she going insane? Possibly. But she liked it. It was a lot better than the way she’d thought she was going insane not so long ago.
When Sophie went back into the dining room, with more bacon and a fresh pot of tea, they were talking about Charlie’s vineyard.
‘So I’m the only one here who’s never had the famous tour,’ Beau was saying.
‘Well, we’ll have to remedy that as soon as possible,’ said Charlie. ‘Name your day.’
‘You’ve got a treat in store, mate,’ said Olive. ‘Wait until you see the view over the vines from the top of the hill. It’s the Hunter Valley combined with Tuscany, but in England.’
‘It’s just a shame about those ugly buildings up there, though, isn’t it?’ said Charlie. ‘Right in the prime spot. I’ve really got to decide what to do about them.’
‘I like your idea to make them into artists’ studios,’ said Olive. ‘We don’t need any suburban shit around to survive, us makers. We can take our own lunch in. We don’t need a branch of Subway.’
‘Make it into a restaurant,’ said Agata.
Everyone turned to look at her.
‘Have artists in one barn,’ she continued, ‘a gallery for them to show their work and food in the one looking over the view. People now are always wanting food – and horrible milky coffee, like babies.’ She flipped one of her hands in the air as if dismissing all milky coffee then took a sip of her espresso. ‘Tamar can do the food. And Beau can be the waiter and charm everyone and the people will spend more money because they are both so beautiful.’
Tamar turned to Agata, eyes wide, then she looked at Beau. He nodded enthusiastically.
‘That’s an amazing idea, Agata,’ he said. ‘I’d be really into seriously talking about that, Tamar, if you would?’
‘It is literally my life’s dream,’ she said. ‘And I can’t think of a more beautiful spot for a restaurant. But what about you, Charlie? It’s your property we’re talking about.’
‘I think it’s inspired,’ he said. ‘A great use of the building and we’ve already got the dream team to do it, although you would have to serve my wine, of course.’
‘No other,’ said Tamar.
Laughter filled the room.
‘Well, come over soon and we’ll have a look and really talk about it,’ said Charlie. ‘Brilliant thinking, Ags.’ He kissed her on the cheek.
‘You are welcome,’ said Agata, turning to Beau and Tamar. ‘And you two can be together all the time. Which is what you both want.’
Everyone laughed again and Beau stood up and took Tamar by the hand, pulling her towards him and planting a big fat kiss on her lips.
‘It’s official, people,’ he said. ‘We’re an item. Best you all know.’
Everyone cheered and Sophie blew a two-handed kiss to Beau, who she could see was looking to her for approval. In the hubbub, she felt Charlie’s hand find hers. She turned to him and smiled, feeling happier than she had for years – even quite a long time before Matt died, she now realised.
Thinking of him reminded her there was still the awful looming presence of his secrets to deal with, but even though she dreaded making those revelations, she now understood how it would release her from the burden of carrying of it all.
But beyond that – and growing bigger all the time – was the chance of proper happiness, for all of them. So she didn’t let go of Charlie’s hand. Let them see. She was done with hiding things.